The present invention relates to a hands-free telephone apparatus for vehicles and a control method therefor that allows a telephone conversation without holding a handset by hand.
There has been proposed a fixed mounting of a hands-free telephone in a vehicle to enable hands-free response to an incoming call, with recent widespread use of mobile telephones, there has been proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 10-304464 a hands-free telephone apparatus in which a mobile telephone is mounted in a vehicle. This hands-free telephone apparatus functions, if the driving burden on the vehicle operator (driver) becomes large or is expected to shortly become large, during a call or while dialing a number, to make notification of that effect, putting the call or dialing on hold.
With this hands-free telephone apparatus for vehicles, if an output of a sensor or an output of a navigation system is taken as a condition such that an incoming call or dialing should be put on hold when the driving burden is large or expected to shortly become large, then even if the driver feels free enough from the driving task to make or receive a call, it is not certain that the driver will be able to use the telephone. Because the call-holding condition is dependent upon the driver, and the sensor output is not necessarily suited to the driver""s ability, it is desirable that a driver be permitted to use the telephone if he or she perceives that the burden of driving is not large.
In driving a vehicle, when the driver is concentrating on looking forward through the front windshield, there are generally a central vision region 62 and peripheral vision regions 64 within a field of vision 100 of the driver, as projected on the front windshield 62 as shown in FIG. 3. The field of view 100, the central vision region 63, and the peripheral vision region 64 are defined as follows.
Referring to FIG. 10, an X-Y-Z orthogonal coordinate system is defined in a vehicle by defining an origin and axis orientations. The origin is fixed to a seating reference point R of a driver, which is established as follows. With a mannequin conforming to ISO 6549-1980 seated in a driver""s seat of the vehicle, the location of the mannequin""s hip point H is taken as the seating reference point R, with a front-to-back adjustable seat in a rearmost position thereof, a vertically adjustable seat at a lowermost position thereof, or with a seat having an adjustable mounting angle of a seat back and seat cushion at a design reference angle to be a lockable angle after first placing the seat in a free condition, as necessary. An X-axis and a Y-axis are oriented in longitudinal and transverse directions of the vehicle, respectively, and a Z-axis extends in a vertical direction. The driver""s seat on which the seating reference point R is established is transversely offset relative to a vehicle center plane S1, and an X-Z plane S2 on which the reference point R resides is likewise offset.
Given the seating reference point R, there are established upper and lower marginal reference points V1 and V2 of vision stricture at rearwardly offset (X=68) two vertical positions (Z=665, Z=589) on a transversely offset (Y=xe2x88x925) vertical plane S3 parallel to the planes S1 and S2, as in the table below. A front windshield 62 of the vehicle is described relative to the reference point R.
Given the two reference points V1 and V2, there are defined two types of visual zones A and B on the front windshield 62, as follows. First, as shown by a side view in FIG. 11 and by a rear view of a projection in FIGS. 12, there are supposed upper and lower imaginary horizontal planes A1 and A2 extending in the direction of vehicle movement, passing the reference points V1 and V2 on the vertical plane S3 (FIG. 11), respectively, and crossing the front windshield 62 along horizontal curves 2 and 3 (FIGS. 11 and 12), respectively. Then, there is supposed an upper inclined plane B1 inclined by 3xc2x0 upward from the upper horizontal plane A1, passing the upper reference point V1 on the vertical plane S3 (FIG. 11) and crossing the front windshield 62 along an upper horizontal curve 1 (FIGS. 11 and 12), as well as a lower inclined plane B2 inclined by 1xc2x0 downward from the lower horizontal plane A2, passing the lower reference point V2 on the vertical plane S3 (FIG. 11) and crossing the front windshield 62 along a lower horizontal curve 4 (FIGS. 11 and 12). Then, an upper spatial zone relative to the upper inclined plane B1 and a lower spatial zone relative to the lower inclined plane B2 are each defined as a vision-restricted zone B, and an intervening spatial zone between the upper and lower inclined planes B1 and B2 is defined as a visible zone A. The zones A and B have their projections on the front windshield 62, which are viewed on the driver""s side in FIG. 12.
On the other hand, a driver""s field of vision 100 projected onto the front windshield 62 is defined as follows. Using a mannequin conforming to ISO 6549-1980, seated in the driver""s seat as described, an eye position E of the driver is defined. As shown by a side view in FIG. 13A and in a section along the windshield 62 in FIG. 13B, the field of vision 100 extends between an upper angle of 60xc2x0 and a lower angle of 80xc2x0 with respect to a horizontal plane extending in the direction of vehicle movement, passing the eye position E, and between angles of 100xc2x0 to the left and right. The outer circumference of the field of vision 100 defines outer margins of peripheral vision regions.
Mapping the zones A and B on the field of vision 100, as shown in FIG. 14, there are established for the driver an upper and a lower peripheral vision region 64 and a central vision region 63 on the front windshield 62, and a blind region 65.
The vision region 63 thus established within the field of vision 100 is a region in which the driver can accurately recognize a display without moving the viewing point when looking forward, and the peripheral vision region 64 is the region in which the presence of something displayed therein can be perceived, but what is displayed cannot be accurately recognized unless the viewing point is shifted to the display position.
The driver, therefore, can immediately recognize something displayed in the central vision region, but when something is displayed in the peripheral vision region does not notice the display if the burden of driving is large, although does notice the display if the burden of driving is not large.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a hands-free telephone apparatus for vehicles and a control method therefor, wherein if a driver is caused to notice an incoming call telephone call indicated at a position removed from the driver""s central vision region by a display means, without issuing an audible ringing, the driver is permitted to answer the call because it was taken that the driver was free enough from driving to have noticed the indication of the incoming call.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a hands-free telephone apparatus and a control method therefor, wherein, even if a driver who notices an incoming call displayed at a location removed from the driver""s central vision region by a display means answers the call, because driving will present a burden to the driver, if inter-vehicle distance tracking control is being performed the inter-vehicle distance is re-set to a distance longer than the reference inter-vehicle distance usually set, or braking force is controlled so as to enable the driver to drive at ease.
An aspect of the present invention to achieve the object is a hands-free telephone apparatus for vehicles, comprising a telephone holder configured to hold a mobile telephone in a vehicle, a display configured to indicate information, a microphone and a speaker for a hands-free telephone call, an operation inputter, and a communication controller connected to the mobile telephone held in the telephone holder, the communication controller performing an incoming call control to be responsible for a reception of an incoming telephone call at the mobile telephone held in the telephone holder to control the display to indicate the reception, without issuing an audible ringing, for detection of a prescribed operation input from the operation inputter within a prescribed amount of time after the reception, to have a telephone connection established to enable a hands-free call using the microphone and the speaker, and for non-detection of a prescribed operation input from the operation inputter within the prescribed amount of time after the reception, to enter an automatic call response.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a hands-free telephone apparatus for vehicles, comprising a telephone holder configured to hold a mobile telephone in a vehicle, a display configured to indicate information, a microphone and a speaker for a hands-free telephone call, an operation inputter, and a communication controller connected to the mobile telephone held in the telephone holder, the communication controller performing an incoming call control to be responsible for a reception of an incoming telephone call at the mobile telephone held in the telephone holder to control the display to indicate the reception in a peripheral vision region out of a central vision region of a driver, without issuing an audible ringing.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a hands-free telephone apparatus for vehicles, comprising a telephone holder configured to hold a mobile telephone in a vehicle, a display configured to indicate information, a microphone and a speaker for a hands-free telephone call, an inter-vehicle distance tracking controller configured to keep an inter-vehicle distance between the vehicle and a preceding vehicle to a reference inter-vehicle distance, an operation inputter, and a communication controller connected to the mobile telephone held in the telephone holder, the communication controller performing an incoming call control to be responsible for a reception of an incoming telephone call at the mobile telephone held in the telephone holder to control the display to indicate the reception, without issuing an audible ringing, and for detection of a prescribed operation input from the operation inputter within a prescribed amount of time after the reception, to have a telephone connection established to enable a hands-free call using the microphone and the speaker, and to make the reference inter-vehicle distance longer.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a hands-free telephone apparatus for vehicles, comprising a telephone holder configured to hold a mobile telephone in a vehicle, a display configured to indicate information, a microphone and a speaker for a hands-free telephone call, a braking force controller configured to control a braking force of the vehicle to have an inter-vehicle distance between the vehicle and a preceding vehicle matching with a reference inter-vehicle distance depending on a vehicle speed, an operation inputter, and a communication controller connected to the mobile telephone held in the telephone holder, the communication controller performing an incoming call control to be responsible for a reception of an incoming telephone call at the mobile telephone held in the telephone holder to control the display to indicate the reception, without issuing an audible ringing, and for detection of a prescribed operation input from the operation inputter within a prescribed amount of time after the reception, to have a telephone connection established to enable a hands-free call using the microphone and the speaker, and to control the braking force controller to apply a braking force when the inter-vehicle distance is shorter than the reference inter-vehicle distance.
Another aspect of the present invention to achieve the object is a control method for hands-free telephone apparatus for vehicles including a telephone holder configured to hold a mobile telephone in a vehicle, a display configured to indicate information, a microphone and a speaker for a hands-free telephone call, and an operation inputter, the control method comprising responding to a reception of an incoming telephone call at the mobile telephone held in the telephone holder, by controlling the display to indicate the reception, without issuing an audible ringing, responding to detection of a prescribed operation input from the operation inputter within a prescribed amount of time after the reception, by having a telephone connection established to enable a hands-free call using the microphone and the speaker, and responding to non-detection of a prescribed operation input from the operation inputter within the prescribed amount of time after the reception, by entering an automatic call response.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a control method for a hands-free telephone apparatus for vehicles including a telephone holder configured to hold a mobile telephone in a vehicle, a display configured to indicate information, and a microphone and a speaker for a hands-free telephone call, the control method comprising responding to a reception of an incoming telephone call at the mobile telephone held in the telephone holder, by controlling the display to indicate the reception in a peripheral vision region out of a central vision region of a driver, without issuing an audible ringing.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a control method for a hands-free telephone apparatus for vehicles including a telephone holder configured to hold a mobile telephone in a vehicle, a display configured to indicate information, a microphone and a speaker for a hands-free telephone call, an inter-vehicle distance tracking controller configured to keep an inter-vehicle distance between the vehicle and a preceding vehicle to a reference inter-vehicle distance, and an operation inputter, the control method comprising responding to a reception of an incoming telephone call at the mobile telephone held in the telephone holder, by controlling the display to indicate the reception, without issuing an audible ringing, and responding to detection of a prescribed operation input from the operation inputter within a prescribed amount of time after the reception, by having a telephone connection established to enable a hands-free call using the microphone and the speaker, and by making the reference inter-vehicle distance longer.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a control method for a hands-free telephone apparatus for vehicles including a telephone holder configured to hold a mobile telephone in a vehicle, a display configured to indicate information, a microphone and a speaker for a hands-free telephone call, a braking force controller configured to control a braking force of the vehicle to have an inter-vehicle distance between the vehicle and a preceding vehicle matching with a reference inter-vehicle distance depending on a vehicle speed, and an operation inputter, the control method comprising responding to a reception of an incoming telephone call at the mobile telephone held in the telephone holder, by controlling the display to indicate the reception, without issuing an audible ringing, and responding to detection of a prescribed operation input from the operation inputter within a prescribed amount of time after the reception, by having a telephone connection established to enable a hands-free call using the microphone and the speaker, and by controlling the braking force controller to apply a first braking force when the inter-vehicle distance is shorter than the reference inter-vehicle distance.